Posted on 09/11/2002 9:48:08 AM PDT by Clive
THE police in Kadoma stood idly by as spectators on Saturday as suspected war veterans stormed Impalavale Farm, 10km outside the city along the Gweru-Bulawayo road, and chased away all the farm workers.
The farm owner, Henry Jelliman, fled to Harare last week after he received a Section 8 notice to vacate the farm and a barrage of threats by the so- called war veterans. He left behind nearly 50 hectares of winter wheat and barley and more than 115 workers at the farm to continue irrigating the crop until it is ready for harvesting. There was tension at the farm when reporters visited the area over the weekend, with dozens of so-called war veterans already occupying the farm workers' houses. "Property worth thousands of dollars was destroyed in the melee as the eviction was carried out violently and it was raining," said a spokesperson for the workers.
"Fortunately, though, our employer had just paid us all our severance packages. We even pleaded with the war veterans to spare us until our employer's crops have been harvested, but they could not have any of that," he said. A neighbouring commercial farmer said he was perplexed by the police's inaction. "We were all shocked after the police took no action against the invaders but chose to watch as the defenceless workers were being terrorised," said the farmer who declined to be named for fear of reprisals. Police guarding the farmhouse declined to comment, referring all questions to police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena, who routinely refuses to speak to The Daily News.
Some of the affected families were seen milling near the Harare-Gweru road, ready to board buses back to their rural homes. "I have worked at this farm for more than 12 years and it pains me so much that I have had to leave unceremoniously after all those years," said 44-year-old Pelagia Matumbe of Zhombe communal areas. Meanwhile, farmers in the Midlands and parts of Mashonaland West provinces vowed to ignore the government's 12 noon deadline to vacate which expired on Sunday.
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